Spotlight and Panel Cards

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Spotlight and Panel Cards: The Teeny Weeny Meadow rubber stamp set is perfect for playing with panel and spotlight designs. In the sample above, I used an offcut of stamping card as an initial layout idea, and I loved this idea of a bold panel of colour offset to one edge.

Stamp or blend first?

The answer to this is how clear do you want your silhouette to be? If you want it crisp and true black, then stamp last; for a softer look, stamp first. In the sample above, I stamped and then blended over to soften the look. I also stamped secondary impressions to create a scene with trees fading into the distance.

Beginners will find it easier to blend with Distress Oxide inks or another hybrid ink, but you don’t want a perfect ombre for this type of card. Allow some of your brushstrokes and movements to show and you will get the impression of clouds.

In the sample above, I used Canvas Workspace to create a cut sentiment and cut that from black card. Place the panel onto a shimmer black background and trim to a neat border to the sides and bottom.

Another option is to skip the blending altogether, and just focus on the stamping. Here, I created a mirror image using a gel plate to reverse the stamp. Once you have stamped the reverse image, use the second impression to stamp the right way. This was the ink colour should match in intensity.

You could also do this as a background image and highlight just a section with colour. This is known as a spotlight and it is useful when you want to guide the eye to a feature point. An example of a spotlight card is shown below using the Fountain Scene stamp from Chocolate Baroque.

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